BBC confirms new Top Gear TV show
Old dog. New tricks?
If the definition of madness really is trying the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, BBC Studios ought to have been committed years ago. Attempting to reignite the curious chemistry that made Clarkson, Hammond and May such a watchable trio has led the Corporation’s commercial wing down all manner of weird (and occasionally unwatchable) cul-de-sacs. Its last go, featuring a former PH employee, of course, arguably came closest. And we all know how that ended.
In light of Freddy Flintoff’s life-changing accident - and the costly legal fallout that followed it - it seemed like TG might be done for good. Certainly at the time, the BBC indicated the concept was coming ‘to rest’ indefinitely. But four years is a long time in show business, and with Flintoff’s tell-all now very much in the public domain, the powers that be are apparently content to draw a line under the past, and launch optimistically into the future.
Or at least that’s what the BBC's director of entertainment Ed Havard told the Edinburgh TV Festival on Thursday: "There has been a lot of speculation about this and we can confirm that Top Gear is coming back.” Naturally this has sparked an immediate twirl of an already spinning rumour mill, with Jimmy Carr mooted as the leading contender for a presenter job. BBC News, always on sparkling form when reporting on the corporation’s activities, lobs scrum enthusiast and inveterate truth-teller Joe Marler into the frame.
So that’s two. Whether or not a new version of the show would follow the tried and tested format of three presenters - or indeed, any of the much-copied format - isn’t clear. "I'm not going to talk about talent today,” said Havard. Individual talent, though, as previous experiments have shown, is only half the battle. Doubtless BBC Studios will have been furiously chemistry testing behind the scenes, hoping to catch even a glimmer of real-world spark. We’d humbly suggest that liking cars is a good start. Ditto each other.
There's only so many times you can find meat on the bone as it were..
The last presenters were good but the silly stuff needs to be a little more interesting.
At the end of the day it will never capture what was Clarkson and team's take on blokes arsing around in cars.
e.g. James Martin the chef/presenter is a bit of a petrolhead, I'm sure there are many others.
e.g. James Martin the chef/presenter is a bit of a petrolhead, I'm sure there are many others.
That could be nonsense though but I'll give it a go as and when it returns.
Must really annoy the BBC that one of their most successful (lucrative) exports is a show featuring 3 middle aged white blokes jetting off around the world to hoon around in expensive, gas guzzling cars.
e.g. James Martin the chef/presenter is a bit of a petrolhead, I'm sure there are many others.
Contrary to what most people think I thought the original Top Gear was starting to get stale after season 9, and I never really liked the track only reviews or star in a reasonably priced car segments.
Or, give it a big budget and a prime time BBC One slot, with lots of publicity and fanfare, and watch expectations immediately exceed what they can actually deliver, ultimately leading to another flop to quietly cancel.
There's only so many times you can find meat on the bone as it were..
The last presenters were good but the silly stuff needs to be a little more interesting.
At the end of the day it will never capture what was Clarkson and team's take on blokes arsing around in cars.
e.g. James Martin the chef/presenter is a bit of a petrolhead, I'm sure there are many others.
Flogging and dead horses spring to mind.
I'm also getting bored of seeing reviews of expensive and likely unobtainable cars being flogged mercilessly around a track as some sort of test: how is that relevant?
I'm old enough to remover (and actually liked) the William Woollard days that some other programmes managed to do fairly well, programmes like Fifth Gear.
But the trouble will inevitably be that producers will want it to have the glory days viewing figures and they'll simply regurgitate the same old same old.
I might watch an episode of the new Grand Tour - has it started yet? - to see if they're actually doing something relevant.
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